 the border companies are bissel 's closest equivalent to a standing army protecting the nation from outside threats in their time they have faced the forces of both furyondy and ket as well as the numerous types of humanoids serving the margrave directly they are entirely a volunteer organization a mercenary army but they have been no less effective than the more standard militaries of other nations they are divided up into eight companies of about 1000 soldiers each; four active companies and four reserve two of the active companies are assigned to the western and eastern ketite borders with a third floating company ordered where ever it is deemed most necessary the fourth patrols the western border near the valley of the mage and is usually the smallest of the companies given the lack of activity along this area the four reserve companies are not lax despite not being on border patrol themselves as they are charged with defending the rest of bissel from attacks from within be they bands of bandits making the roads unsafe to travel or humanoids raiding farming villages the soldiers serving bissel are well-equipped and well-armored as the border companies are the main recipients of all tax money collected by the margrave from his barons each company contains contingents of horsemen footmen and archers plus a small group 30-50 strong of scouts and rangers training is largely personal given the mercenary nature of the forces but every new member is required to go through a training program kept up by the more senior members of the forces this training is required only for those who have never served or have gone more than two years since their last period of service one unique facet of the organization is the lack of long-term contracts; during peace time members may leave at any point though they no longer receive pay they may further return at any future point and resume their service membership in the companies is open to all citizens of bissel or its allied nations keoland furyondy veluna and the gran march between the ages of 14 and 60 as well as citizens of other nations not currently at war with bissel on a case-by-case basis the origins of the border companies date back to the original founding of thornward during keoland 's expansionistic movements of the late 3rd century cy their armed forces were spread thin split between invasions of ket and veluna a large number of mercenaries were hired for use in the twin wars originating out of thornward and given the foreseen long-term nature of this conflict were encouraged to resettle in the area they remained here following keoland 's withdrawal from ket and were often called upon to support the still-slight keoish forces assigned to the area this remained through furyondy 's possession of the nation up to bissel 's independence suddenly without an army to protect them but still at risk from ketite invasion a standing call for mercenaries was put out by rollo margrave rollo to fill the place of the withdrawing furyondy forces and support the mercenaries still in use nearly the country country's entire population of such responded and were formed into companies of 500 to defend bissel 's border originally intended merely as a short-term solution until a more-traditional army could be composed these forces served much more effectively than could have been guessed they managed to nearly cut in half the number of attacks by humanoids on the nation nation's populace while simultaneously fighting off the occasional ketite raid and defending bissel bissel's borders with ease by 512 cy they were considered a staple of bissel and were declared bissel 's one military force by elenn margrave elenn since then they have grown from the original five companies of 500 to their current numbers as mercenaries from across the flanaess have moved to settle in bissel wishing to benefit both from the margrave margrave's generous payment rates and the reputation given by serving in the border companies 